Seven Firms Bid to Supply Engine for China’s First Wide-Body Jet

* COMAC says it will finish evaluating the proposals by the end of this year

* U.K.’s Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC announced in April that it wants to supply the engine

(Beijing) — China’s state-owned aircraft-maker said it has received bids from seven foreign and local manufacturers looking to supply the engine for its first wide-body plane, jointly developed with Russia and slated for commercial launch as soon as 2025.

“The engine is the core part of a commercial aircraft and selection of the model is very significant to the project,” Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China Ltd. (COMAC) said on its website (link in Chinese) Wednesday.

The company said it will complete its evaluation of the proposals by the end of this year.

COMAC didn’t name the bidders, but the U.K.’s Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC, the world’s second-largest manufacturer of aircraft engines behind General Electric, announced in April its intention to supply the engine. It is reportedly in talks with COMAC to set up a joint venture for that purpose.

“We are taking it very seriously. We want to be the engine provider,” Rolls-Royce Chief Technology Officer Paul Stein was quoted as saying by the official China Daily newspaper. The project “will invite a lot of positive competition and innovative opportunities to the aviation industry,” Stein said.

China has been plowing billions of dollars into developing its own jets to rival Boeing Co. and Airbus SE, which form a duopoly in the sector.

COMAC and its Russian partner, United Aircraft Corp., formally completed the registration of their joint venture in May 2017, after announcing they would tie up in 2014.

The venture’s goal is to build China’s first wide-body jetliner, the CR929. The airliner is slated to start commercial flights from 2025 to 2028 and will be able to take up to 280 passengers on journeys of up to 12,000 kilometers (7,500 miles).

COMAC and United Aircraft hold equal shares in the venture, which has a research center in Moscow and an assembly line in Shanghai. The companies said their jets would be 10% to 15% cheaper to run than those from Boeing and Airbus, and their long-term goal is to grab a 10% share of the market.

COMAC last year successfully completed the maiden flight of the C919, China’s first home-grown narrow-body passenger jet.

The company said February it had received 785 orders for the C919 from 27 customers, mostly domestic airlines and lessors.

Market observers said obtaining official certification from the global aviation authorities remains one of the biggest hurdles to COMAC’s ambition for a massive commercial launch of the C919, due to a lack of qualified test pilots and test-flight technicians.

Contact reporter Jason Tan (jasontan@caixin.com)